DAVID GURA, HOST:
Not too long ago, crypto was being trumpeted as the next big thing.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1: They are terms we’re starting to hear more and more – cryptocurrency, bitcoin and NFTs.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2: This is Miami, the city that wants to lure tech from Silicon Valley and finance from New York, all by embracing crypto.
GURA: Celebrities were getting in on it, including Kim Kardashian, Matt Damon and Tom Brady.
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TOM BRADY: FTX is the safest and easiest way to buy and sell crypto. It’s the best way to get in the game.
GURA: Another paid spokesman for that crypto company, FTX, was point guard Steph Curry.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)STEPH CURRY: I’m not an expert, and I don’t need to be. With FTX, I have everything I need to buy, sell and trade crypto safely.GURA: At the start of 2022, FTX ran what was one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. The company was valued at $32 billion. That was just three years after it was founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, who’s better known by his initials, SBF.ZEKE FAUX: He was the king of crypto, basically.GURA: Zeke Faux is a former colleague of mine, an investigative reporter for Bloomberg.FAUX: He’d get called in to Washington to testify before Congress about how he thought the industry should be regulated. Bank CEOs were dying to get his attention because they were hoping that FTX would go public, and it’d be a big deal for them. And venture capitalists would give him as much money as he would take.GURA: Until the whole thing fell apart. FTX collapsed spectacularly in November 2022. Customers and investors lost billions of dollars, and a month later, Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested. He’s accused of orchestrating one of the largest financial frauds in history. I’ve been covering the run-up to his trial, which will start with jury selection on Tuesday. But since FTX imploded, SBF has maintained his innocence. Here’s what he said shortly after his crypto empire crumbled.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)SAM BANKMAN-FRIED: I didn’t ever try to commit fraud on anyone. I was […]
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